Harry Potter and the Rules of Magic
by Schlepian
Summary: Harry Potter a squib? Definitely not if the Diary of Ignotus Peverell can help it. The Peverell's research into how magic actually works could destroy Magical Britain as we know it.
1. A Very Unremarkable Day

In a cupboard under the stairs I tried to sleep as tears filled my eyes. I couldn't stop thinking about how much I hated Dudley Dursley, my stupid pig like cousin. We had a math test today and Dudley was looking at my paper to cheat! When I tried to hide my paper from him he starting screaming to Ms. Gould that I was the one cheating off him! She swooped down and tore up my test since all our answered matched and gave me a Zero. Dudley was smirking the rest of class.

At Recess Dudley and his gang started up their favorite sport –- Harry Hunting. In which I would run away for my life as Dudley and his 4 cronies would chase me and beat me up once they caught me. As they chased me in-between the school buildings I spotted a dead end. I knew I was dead meat.

For some reason, I felt a strange instinct to jump as high as possible when I got to the dead end. I closed my eyes and jumped as hard as I could. When I landed I fully expected with my entire being that I would be safely out of harm's way, up on the roof of the school building or something. When I opened my eyes my stomach plummeted. I was still very much at the dead end with Dudley's gang catching up. They beat me worse than ever before and smashed my glasses.

The School called Aunt Petunia and told her I had been caught cheating and starting fights again. When I got home Uncle Vernon thrashed my backside with a belt for a good 10 minutes before finally throwing me into my room.

I ached and had bruises and cuts all over, a fat lip and possibly a broken finger. But the worst part of the day had been the momentary hope that I would magically be safe when I jumped. Where had that surety come from? Why would I be so naïve as to think anything would ever work off my wishes? Thinking back I always had this feeling inside me, that If I wished and tried hard enough I could make anything happen, like maybe…I was special… or even… magic.

But nothing ever happened.

There were never any unexplained fires, no toys flying from Dudley's fat fingers into my own. No spontaneous teleportation. No getting out of my locked cupboard under the stairs by trying to force the lock open with my mind. Nothing special ever happened

And why would it.

I rolled over and let the tears trickle down my cheek and tried to go to sleep.


	2. I'm A What?

Its official, my uncle has lost his mind.

It all started a week ago when he sent me to get the mail with a smart whack to the back of my head. As I was giving the letters to him I noticed one addressed to me.

 _Mr. H. Potter_

 _Number Four Privet Drive_

 _The Cupboard under the Stairs_

Weird I have never received anything in my life. As I started to open the letter it was snatched out of my hands.

Dad look at what Harry was trying to open, he's trying to steal our mail now!

Vernon took the letter out of Dudley's sausages and then froze.

"Petunia!" he yelled.

I was immediately thrown into my room while my Aunt and Uncle argued about something I couldn't quite make out.

As the week went on I noticed more of the same letters addressed to me and Uncle Vernon getting angrier and angrier as he shoveled what appeared to be literally hundreds of them into the fireplace.

Finally he snapped and threw all of us into the car, without packing, and now here I am. Lying in a shack on an island in the middle of nowhere, in a thunderstorm, on the night before my 11th birthday.

The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. I couldn't sleep. I shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, my stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, stated I'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. I lay and watched the time ticking nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all.

Five minutes to go. I heard something creak outside. I hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea? One minute to go and I'd be eleven.

Thirty seconds... twenty ... ten...

nine - maybe I'll wake Dudley up, just to annoy him - three...

two...

one...

BOOM.

The whole shack shivered and Harry sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.

BOOM…

BOOM!

There was a pause. Then -

SMASH!

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor. A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair. The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.

"Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey..."

He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.

"Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger. Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.

"An' here's Harry!" said the giant. I looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.

"Las' time I saw you, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh look a lot like yer dad, but yeh've got yer mom's eyes." He smiled again and stared at my face until I finally grew embarrassed and looked away.

"Well a very happy birthday to yeh. Got somthin for yeh here - I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."

From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. I opened it with trembling fingers wondering what this giant could have for me. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with Happy Birthday Harry written on it in bright green icing.

I glanced up at the giant meaning to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to my mouth, and instead blurted out, "Who are you?"

The giant chuckled. "True, I haven't introduced myself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."

He held out an enormous hand and shook my whole arm.

"What about some tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; I couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and the warmth wash over me as though I'd sunk into a hot bath.

The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage.

Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."

The giant chuckled darkly. "Yer great puddin of a son don' need fattenin anymore, Dursley, don' worry." He plopped sausages in front of me and I was so hungry it tasted wonderful despite the burnt bits, but I still couldn't take my eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, I said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."

The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. And like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts - yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.

"Err - no,"

Hagrid looked shocked.

"Sorry," I said quickly.

"Sorry?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yet parents learned it all?"

"All what?" I said more confused than ever.

"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait just one second!" He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.

"Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy - this boy! - knows nothin about - about ANYTHING?"

This was going a bit far. I had been to school, after all, and my marks weren't to bad. "I know some things," I said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."

But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. Your world. My world. Yer parents' world."

"What world?"

Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.

"DURSLEY!" he boomed. Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble."

Hagrid stared wildly at me. "But yeh must know about yer mom and dad," he said. "I mean, they're famous. You're famous."

"What? My - my mom and dad weren't famous, were they?"

"Yeh don' know... yeh don' know..." Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare. "Yeh don' know what yeh are?" he said finally.

Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice. "Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy anything!"

A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage. "You never told him? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left for him? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from him all these years?"

"Kept what from me?" I asked eagerly.

"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.

Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror. "Ah, go boil yet heads, both of yeh," said Hagrid.

"Harry - yer a wizard."

There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.

"I'm a what?"

"A wizard, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin good one, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's about time yeh read yer letter."

Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to

 _Mr. H. Potter_

 _The Floor_

 _Hut-on-the-Rock_

 _The Sea_

I pulled out the letter and read:

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

 _Dear Mr. Potter,_

 _We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts_

 _School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all_

 _necessary books and equipment._

 _Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva McGonagall,_

 _Deputy Headmistress_

"Hagrid," I said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a wizard."

To his surprise, Hagrid chuckled. "Not a wizard, eh? Never made things happen when you were scared or angry?"

I stared into the fire. Thoughts just like I had a week ago were filling my memory. There was never anything weird happening in my life. No magic to help me escape Dudley and his gang…No snakes helping me get revenge…nothing to hide my embarrassment when Petunia gave me a particularly awful haircut… each day as boring and miserable as the one before it…never anything to suggest I was a wizard. I looked up and saw Hagrid was positively beaming at me, completely confident I would agree. Since I figured nothing could be worse then staying here with the Dursleys I smiled and nodded.

"See?" said Hagrid. "Harry Potter, not a wizard - you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."


	3. DIAGONALLY

I followed closely behind Hagrid walking around London towards someplace he had said was diagonally through a broken cauldron or something. He led me to an alley between a record shop and a bookstore. Once my foot touched the alley however I was suddenly inside a dark and moldy smelling pub where every single person quieted down and started staring at us. We were promptly mobbed and if Hagrid wasn't the size of all of them combined I would have been quite worried. We pushed are way through the crowd with Hagrid apologizing that "We ha ter get a move on." Squeezing out the back door and into… a dingy alley.

It was at this point I was beginning to think perhaps the Dursleys were playing a prank on me. Maybe magic wasn't real and they had tricked me into going to London with a stranger. Hagrid was mumbling something about not being sure which bricks to poke on the wall with his pink umbrella. I started to sidestep away until suddenly the wall started rotating into itself. After about 20 seconds of ear splitting brick on brick grinding sounds I stood gaping at a brick archway that led to a street unlike anything I had ever seen before.

"Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."

People were strolling about in what looked like formal bath robes of various colors and trimmings. The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop blinding my eye. Hagrid began moving down the alley and I followed closely behind wishing I had about eight more eyes as I turned my head in every direction, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as we passed, saying, "Dragon liver, seventeen Sickles an ounce, they're mad..."

A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying _: Eeylops Owl Emporium - Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy_. Several boys of about my age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it.

"Look," one of them said, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand - fastest ever -"

There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments I had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon...

"First things first" Hagrid shouted over the noise of the crowded alley dragging Harry towards a shop with a sign dangling haphazardly which simply read: _Ollivander's_

A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as we stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. I felt as though we had entered a very strict library; I looked around the dusty room at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling.

"Good afternoon," said a soft voice out of nowhere making me jump. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise from the spindly chair.

An old man swooped out of the shadows, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.

"Hello," I said awkwardly.

"Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry Potter." It wasn't a question. You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."

Mr. Ollivander moved closer. I wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.

"Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration. Well, I say your father favored it - it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."

"Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured me from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, wrist to finger, shoulder to floor, every knuckle and round my head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."

It was then I realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between my nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes. "That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor.

"Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. Just take it and give it a wave." I took the wand and, feeling foolish, waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of my hand almost at once.

"Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try -" I had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander. "No, no - here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."

I did try, and then tried again, and again. A new wand every time. I had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become. "Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere - I wonder, now - - yes, why not - unusual combination - holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."

I gave it a wave and…

Nothing

Mr. Ollivander frowned for the first time since I entered his shop as he took that wand away I got the feeling that he was disappointed. He had me try what must have been about twenty more wands and a lump was growing in the pit of my stomach and my arm was getting tired.

"Curios" Ollivander muttered under his breath. "How very Curios." He shuffled over to a drawer near the back drawer and picked up a battered looking wand and pointed it at me mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious as a neon magenta beam burst out of his wand and struck me in the chest.

I gasped and quickly looked down to see if I was hurt. It was a very strange feeling to have what appeared to be a laser blaster being shot at you out of a stick and to not be hurt, or feel anything at all. I glanced up at Mr. Ollivander whose eyes had widened like I was the one who had ambushed him.

"It-it can't be." He approached nervously. "Mr. Potter that is a tricky spell I used. It interacts with a wizard's magical core and releases a burst of visible light from whomever it strikes. I use it to tell the resonating frequency of magic in tricky customers. Unfortunately- Mr. Potter you gave off no reaction at all to my spell… Do you understand?"

My palms started sweating as a niggling feeling wormed its way through me. I began to nod then stopped. "Not really, sir."

Ollivander loomed close. "It means, Harry - that you do not possess a magical core for my spell to interact with. I'm terribly sorry lad… but it would seem you are not a wizard after all."

Hagrid's eyes bulged as he rose to his feet and shook the shop as his head hit the celling. He Boomed at Ollivander saying things like; What do yer mean not a… How could Lily and James' son n… Are ye saying he's a squ...

But I knew it was true. How could I have ever dreamed of being a wizard? I'm just Harry. My life could never be special. Petunia and Vernon were always yelling at me saying how useless I am. And now I had confirmation. I was not special. I would never amount to anything.

Tears blurred my vision and the tinkling of a bell filled my ears as I fled the shop.


	4. Gringotts

I was wiping away the last of my tears when Hagrid caught up to me a couple minutes after fleeing Ollivanders. I couldn't look him in the eye knowing he would be disappointed that I was a freak even in the magical world.

"Harry" he says "There is no way that two wizards like your parents could have given birth to a muggle. Ollivander is getting pretty old he musta made a mistake with that spell. C'mon let's get yeh up to the bank, that'll cheer yeh up.

Hagrid started leading me towards the end of the street, with nothing else to do I followed knowing that Ollivander was of course not mistaken. We had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was - ?

"Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as we walked up the white stone steps toward it. The goblin was even shorter than me. It had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and very long fingers and feet. It bowed as we walked inside.

We were greeted with a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:

Enter, stranger, but take heed

Of what awaits the sin of greed,

For those who take, but do not earn,

Must pay most dearly in their turn.

So if you seek beneath our floors

A treasure that was never yours,

Thief, you have been warned, beware

Of finding more than treasure there.

I was trying to figure out if there was a reason a bank would need to remind it's customers not to steal every time they came in the bank as Hagrid led us over to a busy looking goblin.

"We are here ta visit the Potter vaults." Hagrid boomed out loud.

"And does Mr. Potter have his key?" inquired the golbin.

I started to shake my head but than Hagrid started rummaging through his pockets on the giant coat he was wearing. He started placing things on the goblins desk. I noticed a packet of dog biscuits, a wooden bear, something that looked like a rock covered in frosting and several bits of string before Hagrid finally exclaimed "Aha! here it is." Handing over a small golden key which the goblin peered at for a few moments before guttering something incomprehensible to Harry and a second goblin came marching over.

"Griphook here will take you to your vaults" the goblin explained than immediately set back to work.

Griphook led us out a side door and towards an old mine cart on a track inside a cave. He gestured towards it and Hagrid stepped in. Following suit I sat down next to him as the goblin sat down and pulled a lever. The cart suddenly lurched forward gathering speed quickly taking us down the tunnel and through a waterfall. We emerged into pitch blackness moving faster than I can ever recall moving in my entire life. I had heard of rollercoasters of course but never been allowed on one and this ride was much like I imagined one would be, only without any seat belt or sense of safety. After what felt like forever but was probably only a minute we barreled into a torch lit tunnel and the breaks started squealing as we began to slow down.

That was without a doubt the most exhilarating thing I had ever done. I had a huge smile on my face as my body began to realize the danger was over and we rolled up to a giant metal door. We exited the cart and Griphook took the key from Hagrid. After fiddling with some locks the door swung open.

Inside the vault there were piles and heaps of silver and gold coins with a few bronze ones scattered about. Some of the piles were stacked almost as tall as Hagrid. Griphook explained to me the wizarding currency that each gold coin was a Galleon worth roughly 50 muggle pounds. The silver sickle worth roughly 1 pound and the bronze knuts around 5 pence.

I couldn't possibly begin to count all the coins but it had to be many thousands of each. "Hagrid is all of this mine?" I heard myself ask.

"Course it is, Yeh didn't think yer parents left ya with nothing now did ya?" Hagrid said while clapping my shoulder. I felt my knees buckle under the blow and landed on a pile of gold to the sound of coins clinking.

"Do wizards really walk around with thousands of coins jingling on them to pay for everything?" I wondered allowed.

"Not exactly" came Griphook's reply. "Most carry around Gringott's money pouches that can carry up to ten thousands coins. They are charmed with an interior extension and feather light charms so they don't encumber a wizard. These pouches can't be stolen as we link them to your blood. I can provide you with such a pouch for only 5 galleons."

"Sounds great" I said and grabbed 5 gold coins from the pile I was on.

I began to fill to bag with stacks of coins, it was interesting seeing them all disappear into a space that shouldn't have been able to hold more than a 100 or so. After grabbing enough coins to make my arms begin to ache I looked around the vault and noticed there was more stuff behind all the piles of money. There was a bookshelf with lots of old looking books and a few chests of family jewelry and wands. I grabbed a wand that looked like it was made of a dark red wood since Ollivander hadn't given me one.

A pedestal on the back wall caught my attention. On it was a black leather bound diary with a weird symbol on the cover that looked like a W and y combined. I tried to open it but the pages were magically bound together. I was about to put it back down but felt compelled to take it with me and try to puzzle out how to read it later. After another quick look around nothing else caught my attention, figuring we'd spent enough time in my vault we made our way out.

Hagrid convinced Griphook to let them stop by another vault on the way back out. All it held was a small package which Hagrid quickly scooped out clearing the vault of its contents and we exited the bank shortly after.

I left the bank feeling considerably happier then when we entered. I might not be a wizard but at least I wasn't poor anymore. Hagrid grabbed the school list and we went about collecting everything I would need for Hogwarts. I saw a few extra things I wanted like a mokeskin pouch that was a lot like the Gringott's pouch except could hold other things than money and wasn't quite as secure, sure would be more useful than a backpack. I also bought a large trunk that was about 5 times bigger on the inside than my old cupboard under the stairs and charmed to only ever weigh 10 pounds. All in all everything came out to less than 100 galleons total and Hagrid even gave me a beautiful white owl as my first ever birthday present which I named Hedwig.

As Hagrid dropped me off I realized that this as the best birthday I had ever had. He gave me my train ticket to Hogwarts and told me to look out for him come September 1st. I glanced at the ticket and saw it was departing from platform 9¾.

"Hagrid where's platform 9¾." I asked. After no answer I looked around to realize the giant was somehow already gone.


End file.
